10 resources that will change your world-view.
Your ads suck because you don't read, you dumb slut.
Before you start scrolling, a PSA.
(i) This is not a definitive list. This is my opinion. There are many great books out there on any given subject, I don’t think anyone can define the ‘10 must reads’ without at least a bit of doubt.
(ii) For each resource, I will give you the link to purchase, watch or visit. Some of the things on this list are not free. For those of you who can’t afford it, I will provide the link to a pirated copy as well. Use with care.
With that in mind, here’s tl;dr.
The JWT Planning Guide [2-hour-read]
Truth, Lies and Advertising [Book]
The Long and Short of it [2-hour-read]
Century of Self [4-hour documentary]
Alchemy [Book]
How Brands Grow [Book]
Man’s Search for Meaning [Book]
The Effectiveness Code [2-hour-read]
Strategy is Your Words [Book]
The Deck of Brilliance [Website]
01. The JWT Planning Guide [2-hour-read]
Stephen King (the strategy guy, not the horror guy), was one of the pioneers of the then infant discipline of account planning. Strategic/Brand/Communication planners of today consider this the bible of planning.
King introduces a 5-step process that covers the diagnosis of problem, picking media channels and writing the strategy. It is a bit of a tough read. With some commitment, you should be able to finish it off in one sitting.
“But I am not a strategy person. Why is this important to me?” you ask.
Most brands and agencies have left behind the two important parts of creating brilliant solutions, for the next shiny media channel: Diagnosis and strategy. In a culture that glorifies finding the solution to problems you don’t understand, having a clear framework that includes diagnosis and strategy will be helpful to non-strategy folks too.
Available for free download here: http://plannersphere.pbworks.com/f/JWTPlanningGuide.pdf
02. Truth, lies and advertising [Book]
In my opinion, this is one of the best books written on advertising. Jon Steele shares his experience as a planner in this book. The key takeaway for me, was how Mr. Steele approaches research with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Before this book, I would naively follow research findings, the way it was given to us. I felt like an idiot after reading Mr. Steele’s take on research. For that, this is my favourite book out of this list. And Mr. Steele is the ultimate bad boy for this edition of Brand Fetish: the newsletter.
Buy it at book depository (free shipping worldwide): https://www.bookdepository.com/Truth--Lies--and-Advertising/9780471189626
Download the pirated version here. If you download this, make sure you read it and buy a copy when you have the means.
03. The Long and Short of it [IPA Report]
You can’t say ‘advertising effectiveness’ without saying Les Binet and Peter Field. These gentlemen analyzed 996 IPA case studies over 30 years, across 700 brands in 83 industries to publish this revered document.
The biggest takeaway for me:
As in any healthy relationship, finding the right balance between the short-term and the long-term is the best way to build brand and achieve sales. Great relationship advice, ladies & gentlemen.
Read the pirated version here.
04. The Century of Self [Documentary]
On the surface, this is a grainy, 4-hour documentary that looks all prepped to bore the living fuck out of you. As a principle, I don’t watch anything grainy and I don’t have the patience to watch anything for 4 hours. But ‘Century of Self’ will get you hooked in the first 10 minutes. And look out for the ultimate bad boy of the century and Freud’s nephew, Mr. Edward Bernays.
05. Alchemy [Book]
I have feelings of incredible proportion for this book by the modern-day legend, Mr. Rory Sutherland. Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and one of the people who inspired me to nose-dive into Behavioural Economics.
The book is based on Rory’s experience with human behaviour, psychology and the many interventions that Ogilvy did for their clients.
The biggest take-aways for me;
The ‘average’ person doesn’t exist. Don’t try to sell to the ‘average’ person
The opposite of a good solution can be another good solution
There is a vast difference between how traditional economics expect humans to behave, and how humans actually behave
Download the pirated version here.
06. How Brands Grow [Book]
Part 01, is everything the cover says: “What marketers don’t know”. I’m formally trained to be a marketer (‘a Chartered Marketer, as the British would say’). But none of things on this book were on my text books.
It negates the “esoteric quackery concerned with segmentation, differentiation and how buyers perceive brands (e.g. brand personality)” with evidenced based marketing, using the scientific approach to building brands and not what marketing theory suggests.
I nicked these 7 takeaways from the ‘How Brands Grow Speed Summary on brandgenetics.com
Continuously reach all buyers of the category (communication and distribution) – avoid being silent
Ensure the brand is easy to buy (communicate how the brand fits with the users life)
Get noticed (grab attention and focus on brand salience to prime the users mind)
Refresh and build memory structures (respect existing associations that make the brand easy to notice and easy to buy)
Create and use distinctive brand assets (use sensory cues to get noticed and stay top of mind)
Be consistent (avoid unnecessary changes, whilst keeping the brands fresh and interesting)
Stay competitive (keep the brand easy to buy and avoid giving excuses not to buy (i.e. by targeting a particular group)
Pirated version: I can’t find a pirated version for this one. Sorry.
07. Man’s search for meaning [Book]
Victor Frankl was an Austrian Neurologist who was captured by the Nazis and put in a concentration camp. He survived the atrocity and reflects back on what kept him alive in this book.
“That’s a sad story. How does it help me become a better marketer?” you ask.
You may not know it, but you are in the business of manufacturing meaning. Why would someone feel more athletic wearing Nike? Why does your Nucleus Accumbens light up on a fMRI test when you see Coca Cola branding and not Pepsi?
Small strands of meaning, associated with colours, shapes and feelings.
08. The Effectiveness Code [Report]
Cannes Lions and WARC released this publication in 2020. James Hurman and Peter Field puts forth their analyses of 4,863 effectiveness award entrants and winners from 2011 to 2019 in this publication.
Creative commitment, the collapse of creative commitment over the last decade and the effectiveness ladder are the key themes on this report that I found interesting.
The report, and the 06 mini-guides on each of the rungs of the effectiveness ladder come with a whole lot of examples. I turned each of these levels of the ladder into a training session for my colleagues at FUDGE.
It is available for free on the Cannes Lions website. However, seen as I am too lazy to dig for it, I’ve re-uploaded it here.
09. Strategy is your words [Book]
Mark Pollard is a modern-day sage. I wouldn’t have read or watched most of the stuff I spoke about previously if not for him. He is also someone who has helped me make some tough choices regarding what I wanted to do for a living.
So before I speak about his book, please go check out his ‘consciousness streams’ on Instagram. Follow the Sweatheads blog, take his 100-day course.
I’ve rarely had a client who spoke freely, without hiding behind big words. I don’t blame the ones who do. I’ve rarely met an agency person who can go 2 sentences without using a combination of big words that requires an entire acid trip to make sense of. Sometimes, I do it when I run out of things to say.
We focus on the ‘engineering’ the human will, without understanding the mechanism through which we make sense of our lives, ‘WORDS’. It is impossible to reframe behaviour without words. The ability to play around with words is one of the most underrated skills a marketer needs to have.
So, buy this book here. It is worth the investment.
10. The deck of brilliance
“Pick a position & fuck”. The Fudge(TM) brand book has that line on the page about consistency.
The point is, all good brands have a clear angle on how they want to tell their story (yes, I also flexed my agency). The deck of brilliance curates 52 different ways of storytelling with examples. It is a brilliant resource I use to train my colleagues. It is also my go-to place when I write my own video scripts.
It was created by the duo Juggi Ramakrishnan & Todd McCracken and is available free on https://deckofbrilliance.com/.
And that’s it. 10 things that changed my outlook of marketing/advertising/strategy. Hopefully you will at least read a few of these and do marketing better.
Until the next article, enjoy the theme song for this Substack.